CARLTON coach Michael Voss and Greater Western Sydney coach Adam Kingsley have rejected suggestions that injuries could be used to game certain situations, after a contentious moment midway through the Giants’ victory at Marvel Stadium on Saturday.
Umpires stopped play as Carlton ruck Tom De Koning was exiting a clearance with the ball, after Giants tagger Toby Bedford was left prone on the field following what appeared to be a shoulder injury.
A ball-up followed the incident, despite the Blues having possession, with Bedford quickly shrugging off medical attention and resuming his place alongside Patrick Cripps at the resulting next stoppage.
Bedford played out the game and continued his tagging role on Cripps, restricting the Blues skipper to 25 disposals, eight clearances and a goal.
“It’s a really tricky one for the umpires. They’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t,” Kingsley said afterwards.
“Carlton looked like they were shaping out of the contest, from memory, but it was certainly still in the contest. I don’t think it deserved a composed possession for Carlton, so a ball-up was the fair outcome I thought. Even though they had the ball, it’s a bit tricky.
“The last couple of weeks, the umpires have been under a bit of pressure around not stopping the play. What would we expect them to do? Of course they’re going to be cautious. I thought they made the right call, absolutely.”
Bedford wasn’t forced from the field as a result of the shoulder injury and ultimately played out the remainder of the match, though Kingsley denied the suggestion that such situations could be gamed in the future.
“I think there’s a fairness with every competitor in this competition, whether they’re coaching or playing, that would suggest they’re not going to try and do that.”
The Bedford incident came at a pivotal moment in the second half of the Giants’ eventual 28-point win, though Voss also defended the situation and said the umpire’s intentions were correct to stop the play.
“I think we know why that’s happened, don’t we?” Voss said.
“That’s why you’ve got to be really careful with how hard you go on those things. The reality is, clearly the intention is the right thing. I don’t have anything against the umpires in that particular instance. Their intention was fine.
“I think we’ve got to give them a little bit of a break on this. You’d love it to be perfect, maybe that could have been handled differently, but I think you’ve got to look at the umpire’s intention. He’s trying to do the right thing. The ball-up ended up being the right thing, I guess.”
Carlton’s season is hanging by a thread following its 28-point loss, with the Blues once again bemoaning a defeat despite winning a host of key statistical metrics including inside-50s (+11), clearance (+4) and contested ball (+38).
“There’s enough in there to suggest that we’ve got plenty to model,” Voss said.
“In terms of large parts and periods of the game, we’re doing pretty well. Most of the game was like that. But then when the game got in that balance where you feel like you almost had fought your way back, there was an easy goal or two on the other side of it.
“That means you start chasing the game a little bit more, you look for an option that you shouldn’t, you force a play that you don’t need to.
“In the second quarter, I think we kicked 1.5 and they were able to go down and kick a couple of good goals. In the third quarter, they kicked that last goal from centre bounce with a few seconds to go on the clock. In the fourth quarter, we drag it back into nine points and then they kick a couple of relatively easy goals from end-to-end.
“There were just little parts where, as we fought our way back in, we weren’t able to hold for that next one and really bring the energy to the stadium and also bring the energy within the team. Persisting through those times will be important.”
The defeat leaves Carlton at 4-7 heading into the bye, though Voss still believes the Blues can impact deep into the season if results can follow performances throughout the second half of their campaign.
“Absolutely,” Voss said.
“For us, it’s about impacting the season. We’ve got enough there to suggest that we can get after our second half of the season. But we’ve also got some challenges we need to be able to take care of.
“Drifting into September right now is probably the furthest thing from my mind. It’s taking a break, getting a rest, coming back together, putting the problem on the table, solving it together collectively as a group, resetting ourselves, bringing new energy and getting after it. That’s what we’ll do.”
The Giants’ 28-point win was inspired by captain and 250-gamer Toby Greene, who moved back into the midfield in the absence of several key players and finished with 28 disposals, three goals, six clearances and 13 score involvements.
“He was reasonable,” Kingsley joked.
“It’s nice having that piece to be able to shift into the midfield when we’ve lost a few of our first-choice guys.
“We know he’s a great player ahead of the ball, so that’s where we’d probably like to keep him as much as we can. Some injuries suggested we needed to move him into the midfield, the same as Lachie Whitfield in this game. Both of those boys had outstanding games.”
